#⃣ 🎇 🚇 NikiRobot - an evolution in educational robotics 😶 🙎 👩🏻‍🍳

On the educational market, there are many educational designers who, to varying degrees, solve problems in the field of teaching such exact disciplines as: physics, mathematics, chemistry, engineering, programming, etc. As the long-standing practice of teaching robotics has shown, two things are valued in sets:

modularity and the presence of a variety of types of fastenings and their simplicity (the strength of a child from 9 years old) with a variety of details
extensive dialing functionality: a variety of sensors, the number of actuators (motors).

The leading position in the first category of assessment is occupied by lego sets , and in the second arduino . And the evolutionary link of these two products is NikiRobot .

Product site .

NikiRobot is a kit consisting of parts similar in engineering solution to lego technic parts, but having a number of various advantages and electrical components developed on the basis of arduino boards and sensors with modules compatible with arduino boards. This solution provides several advantages:

lowers the age threshold for learning robotics
expands the range of development of robots and robotic systems in the research, engineering and sports and competitive spirit.

The first advantage stems from product design and technical solutions. All electronic components are enclosed in protective plastic containers. This solution will protect the sensor or module from mechanical damage or accidental short circuit. A very well-developed system for joining parts. Parts have two to three degrees of freedom in the mount area and are fully compatible with lego technic parts. The connecting wires are durable and fasten only in a certain position. This technology allows you to reduce the age threshold for teaching robotics to 7 years.

Second advantagedue to the variety of hardware arduino systems. Today, there are more than 90 sensors and modules that were directly developed for arduino boards, not counting the electronics that can be compatible in technical specifications. The kit contains a universal adapter for connecting any arduino compatible sensor.

The software at this moment is so diverse that it allows you to program devices in arduino from 7 years old both in the graphic-visual language (a variant of Scratch) and in high-level text language C ++, java, etc.
Robotics is developing and expanding the horizons of knowledge. The future of technological progress, like science, is the combination of many solutions and directions.

NikiRobot Kit Contents

The basis for controlling the electronic part of the robot is the arduino board. All electronic components are compatible with this board. The whole set is designed in the same style. The material of the supporting structure and mounting system is ABS plastic, which is resistant to mechanical, thermal and chemical influences. All cases in which the electronics are removable.

NikiRobot basic kit structure

Complete set of the Basic set:

Included

-Processor unit.-Motors- 2 pcs. -Servomotor.-Distance sensor.-Color sensor.-Line sensor.-Touch sensor.-IR remote sensor.-Bluetooth sensor.-IR remote.-Battery.-Connection cables.-Power supply-Designer parts -500 pcs.

Below is the electronic filling of the NikiRobot basic set.

The brain of the robotic device is the control unit, which has two terminals for connecting DC motors and six terminals for connecting sensors and modules.

Separately, a USB port for downloading the program and a power port for charging the battery are displayed. The unit is equipped with a piezoelectric element for supplying sound signals and an LED for supplying light signals. Also there is a button on / off and reboot (reset). The fourth port is required to connect the Bluetooth module.

Legend

1. - ON / OFF
button 2. - Reset button (reset)
3. - USB input
4. - Battery power
5. - Pins for connecting DC motors
6. - Indicator light
7. Sound output

P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, P6 - ports for connecting sensors, modules and servos.

There is a special box in the control unit for the battery.

Symbol:

1. Battery at 300 mAh, 7.2V

We examined the external part of the structure, now it is time to look inside.
Figures 5 and 6 show the inside of the control unit.

1. - arduino uno
2. - expansion for the arduino uno board

The box for the battery is made so that you can connect batteries of different overall sizes.

Software

Since the arduino microcontrollers are the basis of the “brain” of the CyberBot set, you can work with them using such software environments as:

Arduino ide
Ardublock
MBlock3
MBlock5

You can use other software, but the listed environments are already optimized for these cards and do not require complex settings. Briefly consider them.

Arduino ide

This environment was developed by arduino board manufacturers, so there should be no problems programming and managing the boards.

The official page for downloading the program

Ardublock

- This is an adapted programming environment arduino ide for scratch-like language. This variation in the use of the graphic-visual programming language was due to the education of children from 8 years old.

A more detailed installation of the add-on for arduino ide is presented here

MBlock3

A very good and advanced programming environment for arduino boards. Here you can write code in both the C ++ text language (arduino ide) and scratch-like language.

Link for downloading software.

To program directly for NikiRobot in MBlock3, you must install the extension developed by CyberTechnic.

MBlock5

This environment is similar to MBlock3, but with significant additions and extensions.
Download page MBlock5

As can be seen from the figure, there are many variations for installation on different operating systems. In addition to the local program, there is an online editor MBlock5.

Accompanying literature and technical support

Together with the kit, there is a methodological literature:

assembly instructions
methodical collection of classes ( for 36 academic hours with goals and objectives ).

On the manufacturer’s website you can get advice on recruiting or leave your wishes on improving or supplementing the recruitment - sets can be completed on request.

Below are some options for robots based on this set:

NikiRobot - an evolution in educational robotics